FARMEES' INSTITUTES. 417 



AVhat we wish to know is, has straw any vahie as a fertilizer when spread upon land 

 dry and plowed under? Or is tiie value of tlie labor required to draw, spread and 

 plow under the straw greater than the benefit to the land? In other words, does it 

 "cost more than it conies to" to dispose of it in this way? In tlie same report you 

 state that unleaohed ashes are worth for a fertilizer 40 cents per bushel. This is a 

 matter that has been discussed in our grange, and the opinion has been frequently 

 expressed that, as a fertilizer, ashes are of little or no value. Perhaps our mistake 

 has been in the method of application. Information as to the mode of applying, 

 and to what crops ashes should be applied to realize a value of 40 cents per bushel, 

 would be gratefully received by thousands of farmers in the State of Michigan, and 

 especially by the members of Martin grange. 



HENRY SnULTES, 

 Secretary Martin Graiuje. 

 Martin, Allegan Co., February 19. 



REPLY TO MR. SHULTES' LETTER BY DR. KEDZIE. 



At the closing meeting of the Bay City Farmers' Institute, I read a paper on the 

 comparative food value of different varieties of Indian corn, and of millstuff, in 

 which I directed attention to the great value of these materials, but especially of 

 shorts and middlings because they enable a stock to digest and assimilate a large 

 amount of straw, cornstalks, etc.; that the mixture of a small amount of shorts with 

 the straw would make a food as sustaining for a store animal as hay; that not only 

 could there be a great saving in the method of feeding, but a larger quantity and an 

 improved quality of manure might thus be obtained, and that the straw-stacks which 

 are now sufiered to rot down in our fields are a disgrace to our agriculture. 



The illustration of this subject which I saw in the stock-feeding on Mr. McGraw's 

 farm at Bay City, in which about 90 steers were fed with cut straw and corn meal 

 steamed together, the fine condition of the stock and the quality of the manure pro- 

 duced served to fix these facts more strongly on my mind. 



At the opening of the Institute the following question (I quote from memory and 

 may not have the exact words), was placed in the question box, and Avas read at the 

 close of my paper: "Is there any chemical agency by which in a few hours we may 

 compose, transpose, or decompose straw so that we can turn it under the sod with- 

 out clogging the plow?" As I had already given my ideas about the value and use 

 of straw, I did not wish to go over the same ground before the same audience, I an- 

 swered tlie question directly by saying: "Yes, a match will do all that." I had no 

 intention of saying that was the best way of disposing of straw, for my essay had 

 pointed out a better way. 



VALUE AND USE OF STRAW. 



Where straw is cut before it is too ripe it is of value as food, especially for store 

 cattle. In Germany it is valued at more than half the price of the best hay. But to 

 secure the best results in feeding straw some material rich in albuminoids must be 

 fed with the straw, such as oil-cake, shorts, middlings or clover hay. The straw 

 alone does not contain enough of the albuminoids to secure the complete digestion 

 of the carbohydrates which it contains. If the straw is fed with substances rich in 

 albuminoids, the manure will be as rich as that made from hay. 



Yet I think it is the general experience of farmers that, "there is little profit in 

 feeding stock with straw alone, and the Martin Grange may ask me where can they 

 obtain the materials rich in albuminoids to enable them to use up such an amount of 

 straw in stock-feeding? Let me ask them in return, what is done with the 1,000 to 

 3,500 bushels of wheat? Is it milled at home, the costly flour sold for export, while 

 the low-priced middlings, shorts and bran are retained to work off the straw, one 

 cheap product thus added to a cheap material, causing large gain to the farmer and 

 increased fertility to the farm, or is the wheat sold in bulk with loss of all these food 

 materials? Can the farm or the farmer afford this? 



Mr. Shultes asks, " Has straw any value as a fertilizer when spi-ead upon land dry 

 and plowed under?" I answer that straw has a manurial value in itself. If we com- 

 pare moderately rotted stable manure and wheat straw in regard to their contents 

 ■of the three most valuable manurial elements, nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid, 

 we find that, weight for weight, the manure and the straw have nearly the same 

 value; the manure contains more water and the straw more vegetable matter, but 

 in other respects their value is nearly equal. The straw is more bulky and difficult 

 to cover, but once placed beneath the soil and decomposed thei'e is a positive addi- 

 tion to the available plant-food in the soil. Whether it would pay to handle it for 

 this manurial value, the practical farmer can tell better than I. Wherever the soil is 



